Modern telecommunication systems often encompass a series of individual satellites that must be placed respectively into their orbit one after the other according to a pre-established ordering principle. The so-called Constellation Project, for example, provides for launching ten satellites simultaneously with the use of a single launcher rocket. After the rocket reaches the intended orbit, a specially constructed apparatus for placing the satellites in orbit, the so-called "dispenser", then dispenses one satellite after the other into the intended orbit.
In known dispensers the satellites are individually fastened to or on a central primary support structure that then bears the entire loads and forces transmitted during the lift-off, ascent and flight phases of the launch. In an apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,226 (Jones et al.), a total of six satellites are mounted on support plates arranged in a star configuration, in two planes or layers, one above the other. A similar arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,653 (Bombled et al.). According to this U.S. patent, a central mast or cylinder supports the satellites. In both of the above-mentioned conventional arrangements, the central structure, and not the satellites themselves, bears the thrust and lateral or shear forces that arise during the lift-off, ascent and flight phases of the launch. Consequently, the central structure of these known dispensers must be very stable and, thus, necessarily heavy in order to ensure that it provides the required strength and stiffness.
According to the principle of the known so-called Iridium Dispenser, several satellites are individually fastened to a plate-like adapter disk, and each satellite has its own release mechanism. In this known arrangement, the adapter disk can be provided with a drive unit that is used to position and dispense or deploy each satellite into its intended individual position. The adapter disk and the release mechanism must be relatively heavy in order to satisfy the stiffness and strength requirements. Another variation of this concept does not provide a separate drive unit for the dispenser.
Another known apparatus for launching satellites, which is part of the so-called Globalstar concept, is also based on a central tube to which all payloads are fastened. This relatively thin central tube and an associated soft adapter shell in the form of a flat conical adapter also require a relatively large structural mass in order to fulfill the demands of strength and stiffness to which they are subject.